Li Gu

Biography

Early Years and Service under the Later Tang and Later Jin

Li Gu's father and grandfather had lived at Luoyang. Another account, relying on the History of Song, records that after the Huang Chao rebellion the family moved elsewhere and that Li Gu was born away from Luoyang, so the surviving material cannot be used to identify Luoyang as his birthplace. Li Gu was tall and powerful and was a good archer in his youth, later turning to serious study after being troubled by his fellow villagers. In 929 (4th year of the Tiancheng era, Later Tang) he passed the metropolitan examination and served successively as an assistant in Huazhou and Taizhou.

From 936 (1st year of the Tianfu era, Later Jin) onwards Li Gu held posts including investigating censor, assistant director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and judge of the Kaifeng prefecture. In the twelfth month of 938 (3rd year of the Tianfu era, Later Jin) he was assistant director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and concurrently judge of Kaifeng. In 942 (7th year of the Tianfu era, Later Jin) Shi Jingtang died and Shi Zhonggui came to the throne, and Li Gu served as a bureau director, a judge of the finance commission and a director of the Ministry of Personnel, with one period of dismissal and retirement at home. In the spring of 944 (9th year of the Tianfu era, Later Jin) he accompanied the young emperor on the campaign against the Khitan as a scholar of the Bureau of Military Affairs and a supervising secretary, and was later pushed aside by Feng Yu and Li Yantao and transferred to be vice commissioner of the Three Departments, handling the finances of thethe regency administration administration.

The Fall of the Later Jin and Service under the Later Han

In 945 (2nd year of the Kaiyun era, Later Jin) Li Gu became governor of Cizhou and commissioner of water and land transport for the northern front. At the end of 946 (3rd year of the Kaiyun era) the Liao armies destroyed the Later Jin and Li Gu was captured, enduring repeated interrogation without submitting. In 947 (12th year of the Tianfu era, Later Han) Emperor Taizong of Liao, Yelü Deguang, died on his way north and the Later Han was founded. When the soldiers and people of Hengzhou rose and drove out the Liao forces, Li Gu remained in the city. He asked Feng Dao and other former chief councillors to go to the army and encourage the troops, steadying morale, and the garrison and people of Hengzhou then recovered the city.

In the early years of the Later Han Li Gu entered court as a senior attendant on the left and later took charge of the Kaifeng prefecture. As there was much banditry in the capital region, he obtained leads from the localities, employed Liu Deyu and moved troops to help, and wiped out the bandit band at Zhongmu. In 948 (1st year of the Qianyou era, Later Han) Guo Wei campaigned west against the revolt of the three garrisons and Li Gu served as commissioner of water and land transport for the southwest; after the fighting was settled he was transferred to be governor of Chenzhou. In the eleventh month of 950 (3rd year of the Qianyou era, Later Han) Emperor Yin of the Later Han killed Yang Bin and other ministers and urgently summoned the garrison commanders, and Li Gu went to court in answer to the summons.

The Chancellorship and Administration under the Later Zhou

In 951 (1st year of the Guangshun era, Later Zhou) Guo Wei founded the Later Zhou and Li Gu first became vice minister of revenue and soon vice director of the Secretariat and a joint manager of state affairs, continuing to supervise the Three Departments. In office he dealt with financial and civil questions. The histories record that he set quotas for the delivery of hides in proportion to land under the ban on cattle hides and memorialised for the abolition of military farming, with the prefectures and counties instead organising tax and labour service. In the second year of Guangshun he broke his right arm in a fall and asked three times to give up the chancellorship; Guo Wei refused and only excused him from the fatigue of attending court, after which Li Gu remained at the eastern capital in charge of the Kaifeng prefecture.

In 954 (1st year of the Xiande era, Later Zhou) Li Gu was given the additional title of right vice director and scholar of the Jixian Hall, and he accompanied Emperor Shizong on the northern campaign against the Northern Han and the Khitan. After the battle of Gaoping the Zhou armies prepared for a time to advance further on Taiyuan, and Li Gu was responsible for moving military grain and for administering a field office at Taiyuan. After the army returned he was promoted to minister of works, vice director of the Chancellery and supervisor of the compilation of the dynastic history. When the Yellow River burst its banks Li Gu was ordered to direct labourers from several prefectures in repairing the dikes, and he finished on schedule. He also submitted a memorial arguing that records of government affairs should be handed to the historians for compilation, to make up for the incomplete records since the Five Dynasties.

The Huainan Campaign, Retirement and After His Death

In 955 (2nd year of the Xiande era, Later Zhou) Emperor Shizong campaigned against the Southern Tang and appointed Li Gu commander of the forward camp of the Huainan route. Li Gu led his troops across the Huai and besieged Shouzhou. When Southern Tang relief forces approached he judged that his army lacked preparation for fighting on water and that if the pontoon bridge were destroyed he would be attacked front and rear, so he burned his camps and military grain and withdrew to Zhengyang to await Emperor Shizong. This led Shizong to transfer the command of the southern campaign to Li Zhongjin and to order Li Gu to administer the Shouzhou field office. In 955, after returning to court, Li Gu suffered from rheumatism and asked repeatedly to retire, but Emperor Shizong still consulted him on military and state affairs.

In 957 (4th year of the Xiande era, Later Zhou) the Southern Tang held Zijin Mountain and a proposal to stop the war appeared at court. Emperor Shizong sent to consult Li Gu, who memorialised in favour of a personal campaign and set out his reasons. Emperor Shizong adopted his opinion and the Huainan campaign then made headway. Because of illness Li Gu finally retired as acting minister of works, but was still summoned to discuss government. In 958 (5th year of the Xiande era, Later Zhou) Emperor Shizong sent envoys with money and grain after returning with the army. In 959 (6th year of the Xiande era) Emperor Gong of Zhou granted Li Gu the title of opening office with the same honours as the three excellencies and enfeoffed him as duke of Zhao, and Li Gu was permitted to live at Luoyang.

In 960 (1st year of the Jianlong era) Zhao Kuangyin founded the Northern Song. In the same year Li Yun raised a revolt against the Song. Li Gu had earlier received gifts from Li Yun and, after the revolt began, fell ill with grief and anger and died on the yimao day of the seventh month. Converted to the Gregorian calendar, the day of death was 12 August 960. Emperor Taizu suspended court for two days and granted him posthumously the title of attendant of the palace.

Li Gu, courtesy name Weizhen, was a native of Yingshang in Yingzhou. His forebears had lived in Luoyang in Henan, but the Huang Chao rebellion left the city in ruins and the family fled, so that he was born abroad. Eight feet tall and powerfully built, he was a bold rider and archer in his youth and given to chivalry; when local men made trouble for him he turned to study, and being quick by nature he had only to scan a book once to know it as if long familiar. In 929, at twenty-seven, he passed the examinations and was taken successively onto the staffs of Huazhou and Taizhou. Early in the Tianfu era of the Later Jin he was promoted, and in the twelfth month of 938, when the emperor's adopted son Shi Chonggui was left in charge of Kaifeng while the emperor went to Yedu, Li Gu was made a vice director while keeping his old post; in 942, when Shi Chonggui was transferred as prefect of Guangjin, Li Gu went with the office of judicial officer. The emperor died that year and Shi Chonggui succeeded as Emperor Shao, and Li Gu received office; in the spring of 944 the emperor campaigned in person, and in 945 Li Gu became prefect of Cizhou and transport commissioner for the northern front by land and water.

At the end of 946 he was taken by the Liao army and interrogated six times without yielding. The next year the Liao emperor Taizong fell ill and died at Luancheng on his way home, and the founder of the Later Han entered Kaifeng, Li Gu then being in the hands of Emperor Shizong of Liao. In Hengzhou the officer He Fujin and others plotted to expel the Liao, hesitating while their troops in the city were still strong; when most of the Liao troops marched elsewhere leaving eight hundred behind, they fixed on their plan. When the rising began the Han troops attacked the Liao gate guards, Li Yun seized weapons and armor and distributed them to the Han soldiers and the people, and the generals joined in until the Liao fell back on the north city; in the eighth month the Liao re-entered by the north gate and killed more than two thousand civilians. At the crisis Li Gu brought the former chancellors to encourage the troops in person, and the Han morale rose; at dusk several thousand villagers raised a clamor outside the city to seize the Liao's goods and women, and the alarmed Liao army withdrew north, leaving Hengzhou recovered.

Early in the Later Han Li Gu gave up the prefecture of Cizhou, entered court as cavalier attendant in ordinary and soon took charge of the Kaifeng prefecture. Robbery was rife in the capital region, worst of all at Zhongmu, and Li Gu gathered information from the local people, learned where the bandits hid, and appointed the able Liu Deyu as acting magistrate of Zhongmu to restore order. He went on to serve under both Emperor Taizu and Emperor Shizong of the Later Zhou, rising to acting director of the three treasuries, and after the founding of the Later Zhou was made vice minister of revenue and promoted soon after; under Shizong he became right vice director and academician of the Hall of Gathering Worthies, accompanied the emperor against the Northern Han and, on the army's return, was advanced to minister of works and vice director of the Chancellery. The next year he was appointed commander of the forward army of the Huainan circuit and led the campaign against the Southern Tang; on returning to court he lost the chancellorship but still took part in military and political decisions and supported the southern campaign, and was then given the title of minister of works in retirement. He died in 960, the year the Northern Song was founded, at fifty-eight. A man of weight and firmness with outstanding strategic understanding and the power to decide great matters, he was praised in his day in the phrase "Pu can recommend men, Gu can judge them," and was a leading minister under the two Later Zhou emperors.

Under Emperor Taizu of the Later Zhou, Guo Wei, Li Gu directed the finances as acting commissioner of the three treasuries; after the disorders of the Five Dynasties the tax registers of the central plains were in disarray, and he did much to put them in order. Through the Guangshun years he held high office and was trusted by the emperor. When Emperor Shizong, Chai Rong, took the throne in 954, Li Gu was given the posts of right vice director and academician of the Hall of Gathering Worthies and accompanied the campaign against the Northern Han; after the battle of Gaoping and the army's return he was advanced to minister of works and vice director of the Chancellery, becoming one of the chancellors.

In 955 he was appointed commander of the forward army of the Huainan circuit and led the campaign against the Southern Tang, directing the Later Zhou's first great campaign against that state. The armies faced each other along the Huai, and when the fighting went badly Li Gu lost the chancellorship, though he remained at court taking part in military and political decisions and supporting the emperor's continued southern campaign; he was then given the title of minister of works in retirement. For several years afterward, though no longer chancellor, he remained a minister consulted by the court. In 960, the year Zhao Kuangyin founded the Northern Song, Li Gu died at fifty-eight and was given posthumous rank. He served the Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han and Later Zhou in turn, one of the few civil officials of the late Five Dynasties known for steadiness and clear judgment, his career recorded in the Old History of the Five Dynasties and the History of Song.

Li Gu served four dynasties while keeping a clean reputation; the position of civil officials amid the rapid changes of regime in the Five Dynasties was delicate, and his career is a fair example of it.

He and Wang Pu of the same period were both known as judges of men, and the Later Zhou emperor Shizong's appointments owed much to them.

The History of Song calls him a man of weight and firmness, of outstanding strategic understanding and able to decide great matters, and records the saying of his day that Pu could recommend men and Gu could judge them; after the founding of the Northern Song the court still honored his memory.

Major Activities

Political and institutional context

The cached record places Li Gu within the institutions and conflicts of Chinese history.

Source-based record

Personal Relations

• Li Ji: son, who served as a reminder of omissions in the early Song.
• Li Gong: son, who served as an aide to the crown prince in the early Song.
• Li Yun: a Later Zhou general and old acquaintance of Li Gu; he had given Li Gu money and goods, and after he rose in revolt in 960 Li Gu fell ill with grief and anger and died.
• Guo Wei: founding emperor of the Later Zhou, who appointed Li Gu vice minister of revenue, vice director of the Secretariat and joint manager of state affairs.
• Chai Rong: Emperor Shizong of the Later Zhou, who gave Li Gu military office and often consulted him on military and state affairs.
• Zhao Kuangyin: founder of the Northern Song, who suspended court after Li Gu's death and granted him posthumously the title of attendant of the palace.
• Han Xizai: an official of the Southern Tang who knew Li Gu; the phrase about "taking something out of a bag" comes from a later tale whose source is given differently in different accounts and is not treated as established fact.

Representative Works

• Memorial Requesting that Records of Government Affairs Be Sealed and Handed to the Historiographers. Another account states that the Complete Tang Prose includes this memorial, which argues that records of government affairs should be handed to the historiographers for compilation.

Anecdotes

Another account includes the exchange between Li Gu and Han Xizai about a north-south campaign and "taking something out of a bag", while noting the alternative that it took place in letters. The surviving material cannot determine the exact occasion of the conversation, so it is given only as a later tale and not as a verifiable event in his life.

Historical Assessment

The historical assessment remains source-sensitive because the available accounts differ in detail and emphasis.